On October 13, 2017, the NCAA announced it would not levy penalties against North Carolina, saying it "could not conclude that the University of North Carolina violated N.C.A.A. academic rules." In their defense, North Carolina cited cases where Auburn and Michigan had similar misconduct and the NCAA did not act. It was ultimately concluded by the panel that the courses were for the entire student body, not just the student-athletes. The panel did conclude that since Nyang'oro did not cooperate with the investigation he was issued a five-year show-cause period as punishment for him, "any NCAA member school employing the Nyang'oro must show cause why he should not have restrictions on athletically related activity."
Committee on Infractions head for the NCAA, Greg Sankey, stated "While student-athletes likely benefited from the so-called 'paper courses' offered by North Carolina, the information available in the record did not establish that the courses were solely created, offered and maintained as an orchestrated effort to benefit student-athletes." North Carolina chancellor Carol Folt commented on the resolution of the case when she said "I believe we have done everything possible to correct and move beyond the past academic irregularities and have established very robust processes to prevent them from recurring." Tyrone P. Thomas, a lawyer for Mintz Levin and does work with colleges and universities, felt the ruling was "... a massive loophole, and from the P.R. side it looks horrible -- these athletes can do what they do, and it looks horrible. But guess what? Maybe that's not the N.C.A.A.'s job. This is something the schools have always self-regulated."